Somerset alum's college internship is at construction site for new high school

Wednesday

Jul 17, 2013 at 11:26 AMJul 18, 2013 at 1:11 PM

SOMERSET — Susan Stukas used to ask her mother to slow down so that they could see the construction that was happening on the Veterans' Memorial Bridge before it opened. She has been interested in construction since a young age. Now, she is getting a good view of another local construction project that is close to home and it is helping her with her education.

George Austin

SOMERSET — Susan Stukas used to ask her mother to slow down so that they could see the construction that was happening on the Veterans' Memorial Bridge before it opened. She has been interested in construction since a young age. Now, she is getting a good view of another local construction project that is close to home and it is helping her with her education.

Ms. Stukas, a Somerset resident and student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is an intern with Skanska USA Building which is the project manager for the Somerset Berkley Regional High School new building project. So Skanska has Ms. Stukas doing a lot of learning at the construction site that is just a five-minute ride from her home and is right next to the high school building she graduated from.

Ms. Stukas has gone to the building committee meetings and weekly construction meetings for the new high school project. She said she has dabbled into a little bit of everything as far as all the aspects of the construction project. After the meetings, Assistant Project Manager Michael Morrison will explain to her what happened and give her the meanings of some terms she did not know. They walk the site, so she can apply what she is learning to what is actually happening on the construction site. Ms. Stukas has studied the drawings of the new school. She has learned about design selection, price analysis and change orders.

"I was pretty unaware of how many different aspects there are in construction management," Ms. Stukas said. "You see a building go up, but there's so much detail."

Ms. Stukas is majoring in civil engineering at WPI and has concentrations in urban development and environmental planning and construction management. She said she can apply what she has been learning in her classes to the high school construction site and vice versa. She said she has been learning a lot about cash flow and budgeting for a construction project.

"Seeing the different aspects of construction has kind of opened up my eyes to see what I want to do when I graduate," said Ms. Stukas who is going into her senior year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Stukas's internship with Skanska started on May 9 and will be going through August.

"It's exciting to be here on site and watch it go up, and it goes up so fast," Ms. Stukas said as she sat in one of the construction trailers on the high school property. "Once they start, they go."

Ms. Stukas graduated from Somerset High School in 2010. When the new building is finished, the building where she went to school will be demolished. She said she doesn't know if she will be able to watch as the building where she went to school is torn down.

"It's definitely bittersweet," Ms. Stukas said. "That high school — my parents went there, I went there, my brother went there. But the new school is going to be a blessing for the students. It's just giving the students so much more of an opportunity to learn. When I was at the high school, I learned enough to prepare me for college. But sometimes the building hindered that. That won't happen in the new building. I think that plays into school more than people realize."

Ms. Stukas attended the high school when one of the wings had to be shut down because of structural concerns. Her locker had to be moved because of that. She said some rooms could be cold and others hot at the same time and there was a day when pipes burst in the school.

But Ms. Stukas said her interest in getting into construction actually started at Somerset High School. She was in a computer drafting class and teacher Raymond Croke talked to her about architecture and construction.

"You never know what you're going to walk into," Ms. Stukas said of what she likes about construction management. "Every day is different, different challenges."

Last summer, Ms. Stukas had another internship with a construction company and that is when she decided to concentrate on construction management.

Ms. Stukas wants to get into a construction management industry that is dominated by males. There are a few, but she does not have many female students in her classes at WPI. She was the only female on the construction site last Friday.

"It's not an area where girls usually go to," Ms. Stukas said. "But that makes it exciting to me. It's just nice proving stereotypes wrong."

Ms. Stukas said everyone at Skanska has been great to work with and have been willing to help her learn. Mr. Morrison said Ms. Stukas is being educated in all phases of the construction project.

"We've been really lucky," Mr. Morrison said. "This is our second round of interns. Our first one was good and Susan has been no different. She has been outstanding. We keep challenging her with stuff and she does a good job, so we keep putting more on her plate."

Mr. Morrison said Skanska had a large pool of interns to choose from and said Ms. Stukas was selected because of her qualifications, not because she is from Somerset.

"This is a definite perk," Mr. Morrison said of Ms. Stukas being from Somerset where the new high school is being built. "It's not essential, but having a vested interest in the project and knowing some of the people involved is always beneficial."

When she works on the high school construction site, it is just a short ride from Ms. Stukas's home on Harbor View Boulevard. When Ms. Stukas graduates next year, she hopes to get a job in construction management, working on projects like she is in her hometown.

"It's really cool to see how much work goes into making this building great for the students," Ms. Stukas said. "They won't know how good they have it. They are going to have great technology. They are going to have a great building. They are giving the students everything they deserve."